Murali Pillai rebuts Chee Soon Juan’s claims that PAP policies divide society along racial lines

He added: “(Dr Chee) should know that we put in place these policies to overcome our racial divisions, and strengthen unity among Singaporeans.”

Mr Murali said the GRCs ensure there will always be a minimum number of minority representatives in Parliament.

“The reserved elected presidency ensures that every race will have a chance to occupy the highest office in the land. Equality is not served by ignoring differences in race, but by designing rules that respect each and every one,” he added.

Mr Murali noted that some people say these guardrails are unnecessary, and that people should be allowed to decide freely and will eventually be “race-blind”.

“No doubt we aspire towards such ideals, but let’s be realistic. We will not become race-blind simply by removing race from our NRICs or scrubbing out self-help groups, clan associations, heritage centres, and religious, cultural and community groups.

“In fact, taking such steps may cause things to worsen,” he said.

The four ethnic-based self-help groups in Singapore are the Chinese Development Assistance Council, the Eurasian Association, Yayasan Mendaki and the Singapore Indian Development Association.

Mr Murali said that as a minority electoral candidate, it is an “ostrich dream” to avoid talking about race and pretending there is no difference.

He brought up how his campaign poster was defaced in the 2020 General Election.

“Someone deliberately drew a beard on me, put a black and red dot on my forehead, and defaced my figure to make me look like an unsuitable Indian candidate,” he recalled.

“They also wrote insults to mock my race, including writing the character for ‘die’ in Chinese.”

These nasty acts, he added, were done by a small group for political purposes.

“It was a sobering reminder to me that race is never absent in politics,” Mr Murali continued.

“And it reaffirmed my belief that harmony in Singapore cannot be left to chance or wishful thinking.”

Mr Murali said this incident was painful, but he felt sadness more than anger because it showed how easily race could be twisted into hate, and how fragile harmony could be, if Singaporeans were to ever take it for granted.

“Some, like Dr Chee, say we should stop talking about race – that pretending that divisions do not exist will somehow make us more united.

“But my experience tells me otherwise. Ignoring race does not make divisions disappear,” Mr Murali added.

Pointing to the situation in other countries, Mr Murali said many European societies are plagued by the growth of far-right, even fascist, parties fuelled by racial hatred.

In 2008, the US elected Mr Barack Obama, an African-American, as president.

Mr Murali said: “Some thought this will usher in a post-racial America, but instead, ethnic divisions have worsened.

“The fact is this – we cannot strengthen harmony by pretending racial identities don’t exist.

“We cannot pretend that as human beings, we will always obey our highest ideals, but not our base instincts.

“When managing race relations, the Government must deal with the facts as they are and not as we wish them to be,” he said.